James K. Polk

Speaker of the House

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Speaker of the House Polk presided over what amounted
to be a horrible Congressional session that had to deal with the
ensuing economic collapse and panic. President Martin Van Buren
asked that a special Sub-Treasury be created to prevent a rehash
of the crisis in the future, and that special Treasury notes be
issued so the government could pay its current bills. Finally,
he asked that Clay's Distribution Act be indefinitely postponed.
It took six weeks for the Congress to settle the matter, amid political
feud after political feud. Polk's detractors felt the political
situation was more important than the crisis and continued their
petty attacks and obstructionist maneuvers. Former President and
now Representative John Quincy Adams continued to hound Polk with
abolitionist petitions, sometimes upwards of a hundred times a
day. As the debate wore-on, anti-panic measures slowly passed:
at the end of September, the Treasury notes were authorized and
it was a little longer still before Congress suspended the Distribution
Act. In six weeks, it never acted on the sub-treasury bill. Although
Van Buren again tried to pass it in the regular session in December,
Congress never considered the bill. Gradually, though, foreign gold
and business began a reversal of the panic and a year after the
New York City banks had closed, all the nation's banks reopened.

Polk and his friend Andrew Jackson had already turned
their attention to the next presidential election. Van Buren, despite
his growing unpopularity, wanted to run again–but another successful election
was anything but certain, especially with the Democratic party
splitting into factions. That summer, Polk met several times with
Jackson at the latter's plantation to discuss strategy. At one such
session, Jackson informed Polk that he would have to run for governor
of Tennessee. The Democrats needed Tennessee to win the next election,
but they no longer controlled the state's party apparatus; it had
become too fractured. Polk finally agreed, and Jackson began to
campaign for Polk. Tennesseans greeted Polk's candidacy warmly,
and his election looked assured.

Although his days as speaker were now limited, Polk's
job did not get easier. Growing border troubles, especially the
possible annexation of Texas, helped rile congressmen. Shortly
before the House adjourned for the year in 1839, a member introduced
a resolution thanking Polk for his work as speaker–igniting a firestorm unlike
anything the House had seen in a while. Polk's opponents first
blocked it on a parliamentary technicality and then tried to amend
it to criticize Polk. However, the House upheld the original resolution
and, as Polk exited, gave him an ovation.

Polk returned home to acclaim for his even-handedness
as speaker. He began his campaign for governor with a state-wide speaking
tour, to which he invited the incumbent governor–his opponent–to
join him. They planned to appear side-by-side, speaking one after
the other at venues around the state. After years of bitter personal
fighting in the House, Polk enjoyed the opportunity to travel and
converse with his opponent in a friendly manner. At each town, crowds
greeted them, some cheering for the incumbent governor and some
for Polk, whom they called "Young Hickory."

At the second stop, though, Polk's old enemy John Bell
was in the audience and saw that Polk talked circles around the
governor in debate. Bell leapt and took over the anti-Polk campaign.
His fiery and vitriolic speech caught the crowd off-guard and probably
did Bell's cause more harm than good. The governor returned to
Nashville and Polk continued his campaigning alone–with Bell usually just
a day behind. Nonetheless, Polk won on election day; on the same
day that Tennessee elected seven Whigs to Congress and only six
Democrats. Jackson wrote to Polk that he was happy the Democrats
could now hold the state for "at least a hundred years!" The party
celebrated Polk's election with a week-long jubilee at a private
spa and then, on Monday, October 14, 1839, Governor Polk was inaugurated.
In his speech, he laid out his basic doctrine of states' rights
and the threats he saw to their sovereignty.

Just a few days later, the state legislature nominated
Van Buren for president and James K. Polk for vice-president. Polk
did not leap at the chance, but toed the party line: He would support
whomever the party nominated or whoever collected the most legislative
nominations. Much of the nation supported Polk, including all of
New England and both Carolinas, but when Van Buren selected a vice-presidential
running-mate–for reasons that remain mostly unclear to this day–he
chose R.M. Johnson, one of the least popular men in the party.
Polk dutifully campaigned for the Van Buren–Johnson ticket throughout
Tennessee, despite his personal reservations about the quality of
the candidates. The Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison for
president and John Tyler for vice-president. And on a pastoral
platform of simplicity (contrasted against Van Buren's stately
and citified airs), Harrison won the presidency. Curiously, though,
Virginia cast one electoral vote for Polk as vice president.